- The US added 850,000 payrolls in June, beating the median estimate of a 720,000-payroll gain.
- The unemployment rate rose to 5.9% from 5.8%. The median estimate was for a drop to 5.6%.
- The payrolls increase is the largest since August and marks a sixth straight month of additions.
Hiring accelerated again in June as Americans returned to the workforce and reopening further juiced demand.
The US
The June print marks the strongest month of job growth since August and the sixth consecutive month of payroll additions. May payroll additions were revised to 583,000 from 559,000.
The unemployment rate rose to 5.9% from 5.8%. Economists expected the headline rate to hit 5.6%.
The labor-force participation rate was unchanged at 61.6%. The metric has become the go-to gauge for tracking the nationwide labor shortage. Hiring unexpectedly slowed through the spring as virus fears, childcare costs, and enhanced unemployment insurance kept Americans from seeking work. Firms have since raised wages to pull in job applications.
Average hourly earnings rose again, by 10 cents, to $30.40. The gain signals firms still lifted wages into the summer to speed up their hiring efforts.
"This pace of progress is solid and it looks like things can get even better," Nick Bunker, an economic research director at the hiring website Indeed, said. "There's still quite a bit of damage left to repair, but today's report suggests that we may rebuild sooner rather than later."
Snapshot of recovery
The monthly BLS report is among the most detailed snapshots of the
Even after the month's stronger hiring, about 9.5 million Americans remain unemployed. Total payrolls are still about 6.8 million shy of their pre-pandemic peak.
The U-6 unemployment rate - which counts Americans working part time for economic reasons and those marginally attached to the workforce - rose to 10.1% on an unadjusted basis from 9.7%.
Gains were largest in the leisure-and-hospitality and accommodation sectors, where businesses added 343,000 and 75,000 payrolls, respectively. In leisure and hospitality, restaurants and bars counted for more than half of the gain.
The construction industry lost the most jobs, with a decline of 7,000 payrolls.
Roughly 6.2 million Americans named the pandemic as the primary reason their employer ended operations, down from 7.9 million. About 1.6 million cited the pandemic as the main reason they didn't seek work, down from 2.5 million in May.
The share of Americans telecommuting fell to 14.4% through the month. That compares with the May share of 16.6%.
Experts see encouraging growth through the 2nd half
June stands to represent a turning point for the labor market's recovery. The month saw the first few states end the federal boost to unemployment insurance ahead of its September expiration. Twenty-six states - all but one governed by Republicans - have announced plans to prematurely cancel the benefit, saying the move should encourage Americans to return to the workforce.
While the set of cancellations aren't reflected in the June
Survey data backs that up. Just 10% of surveyed job seekers urgently sought work in late May and early June, Indeed said. The most cited reasons for the slow return to work were virus fears, employed spouses, and financial cushions.
Those factors keeping Americans from taking jobs should fade as schools reopen and vaccination continues, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said. Americans can look forward to "strong job creation building up over the summer and going into the fall," he told reporters during a June 16 press conference.
He added that while hiring stumbled in April, some of the slowdown was most likely caused by a skills mismatch between workers and open jobs. There "may be something of a speed limit" on the recovery as people look for work in new areas, Powell said.